In new research, marine biologists trained the Caribbean box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora) to learn to spot and dodge obstacles; their findings challenge previous notions that advanced learning requires a centralized brain and sheds light on the evolutionary roots of learning and memory.
Tripedalia cystophora is a small species of box jellyfish in the family Tripedaliidae.
This jellyfish is about 1 cm in diameter and is native to the Caribbean Sea and the Central Indo-Pacific.
Tripedalia cystophora has a complex visual system with 24 eyes. Living in mangrove swamps, the jellyfish uses its vision to steer through murky waters and swerve around underwater tree roots to snare prey.
“Learning is the pinnacle performance for nervous systems,” said Dr. Jan Bielecki, a researcher at Kiel University.
“To successfully teach jellyfish a new trick, it’s best to leverage its natural behaviors, something that makes sense to the animal, so it reaches its full potential.”
Dr. Bielecki and colleagues dressed a round tank with gray and white stripes to simulate Tripedalia cystophora’s natural habitat, with gray stripes mimicking mangrove roots that would appear distant.
They observed the jellyfish in the tank for 7.5 minutes.
Initially, Tripedalia cystophora swam close to these seemingly far stripes and bumped into them frequently.
But by the end of the experiment, the jelly increased its average distance to the wall by about 50%, quadrupled the number of successful pivots to avoid collision and cut its contact with the wall by half.
The findings suggest that Tripedalia cystophora can learn from experience through visual and mechanical stimuli.
“If you want to understand complex structures, it’s always good to start as simple as you can,” said Dr. Anders Garm, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen.
“Looking at these relatively simple nervous systems in jellyfish, we have a much higher chance of understanding all the details and how it comes…
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